In Canada Democracy And Democratic Rule Are Nothing But Empty Words

In Canada democracy and democratic rule are nothing but empty words. These empty words only guarantee that the people of Canada will get to choose who will lord over them without caring what they want for a predetermined amount of time and whether they will have total unchallengeable control, or not. Trying to find consensus has ceased to be a realistic policy whether in a majority government, or a minority, whether you or the governing body, the official opposition, or the 3rd party opposition, because Canadian governance is based on a bunch of lies and procedures that allow for the Canadian government in any number of situations to abuse the democratic process and there by alienate the spirit of democracy. The very nature and unchallengeable power given to a prime minister elected with a majority government is proof enough to understand that this situation is not democratic in spirit, or practice, but is democratic only by a morphed Canadian perversion of the democratic process which states, “That as long as your right to vote is given to you as a Canadian citizen, in other words their was an election called, then it does not matter if the results reflect the will of the majority of the population, or if campaign promises are kept, or the governance of the winner is in keeping with democratic principles, because you the people of Canada have no process by which you can remove a government legally until you have suffered for four years of corruption, constant scandal, loss of fundamental rights and freedoms and you get to vote again your right to vote.

There is no right to protest anymore, Police usually move in and shut down protests that do not conform to civic bylaws and rules and regulations by all levels of government to make them ineffective. Civic leadersuse by-laws to stifle peaceful protests when there is no violence and no real crimes being committed. Look at the peaceful Occupy Montreal Protest for example, eventually shut down by some city by-law, when the protestors could not be tricked of forced into violating their vows to remain peaceful by the civic authority. These attempts by government to make their actions appear legal only work for a little while, but eventually everyone begins to understand these actions to be what they really are and that is to be nothing less than a crackdown on anti government protesting. Provincial governments handle protest by creating laws to make it next to impossible to legally strike effectively. a person need look no further than Quebec and its anti-protest legislation, or Bill 78. The UN condemned Quebec saying in essence that the government of Quebec’s Bill 78 of all Quebecers to lawfully assemble in peaceful process and restricted the movement of protestors. Federallyone need look no further at the G 20 summit and remember all of the security to prevent Canadians from being seen or heard at the G 20 summit starting with the orders of how policed were to deal with the protestors and the unprecedented arrests and the fact that most of them were illegal, brutally done and without justifiable cause.

There is literally no longer a right to strike, or fair collective bargaining in this country to demand fair working conditions, equitable pay, or safe working conditions from employers, because the government has proven will legislating striking employees back to work by declaring just about anything and everything an essential service. (Postal strike, Air Canada strike)

If there is no mechanism for removal of corrupt governance, by the people (referendum, court challenge, petitioning how can this system be within the spirit of democracy which is supposed to have the government serving at the behest and desire of the people?

Opposition partieswho face the political will and political power of a majority government have been rendered moot in the Canadian democratic system. They are a body of government without mandate, or power and therefore serve little purpose. When facing a majority government this powerless entity claims that they are the eyes, ears and voice of the people, responsible holding the government to account. These politicians would have you and I believe that they are acting in the best interest of Canadians, by being the conscience of the government and reminding them of their duties and obligations to uphold the rights and freedoms of all Canadian people under the laws of Canada and not only for those who voted for them. I find though that they usually feel that the reason the people sent them to parliament it to disrupt, delay and find fault in all legislation put forward by the majority government and Canadians can count on them to vote against anything that the government in the majority puts forward solely because they are the party in opposition.

Majority statusfor a governing party in Canada is like being an emperor/empress. There is literally nothing that can see you removed from office, because you can vote down the very suggestion of it in most instances. In a majority position there is no need to seek consensus, because you can simply use the power of your majority to force into law whatever you like. I think that this majority government under Stephen Harper’s guidance has proven just how non democratic I spirit this type of majority government can be. Political parties in Canada have decided that a majority mandate is a mandate to get as much done as possible while you have the chance, foregoing all debate and ignoring all advice from opposition and independent sources that do not represent your view. Although in the beginning this seems more time efficient and cost efficient, but we have seen time and time again that this is rarely the case in the long run. (dismantling of the Canadian Wheat Board, nomination of Nadon to the Supreme Court of Canada, the F-35 jet fighter fiasco. Minority status government usually lead to an earl election being called when it becomes obvious that the losers in the election are going to take advantage of the fact that they can out vote the winning party if they get a little help from the 3rd party, or the winning government with a minority status realises that they can not get anything done and decide to cut their losses call and early election and hopefully be in a better position to get the majority.

I have heard so much about democratic process and rule of law and what it all amounts to as politicians in opposition status explain it, is being allowed to put on a good show so that the Canadian voter thinks that democracy is being served. In other words the opposition party in a majority government would like to debate until they feel that they have convinced the majority to do things their way even if at the end the majority does not have to make one amendment, because they can simply use their majority vote to do it their way. will have to find consensus with opposition parties. Democracy and the democratic rule of governing for most democratic countries ends at the ballot box on election day and at best is a popularity contest, because there is: No obligation by the leader of a political party or his party to keep the promises made to the voter in their campaign, because once elected they cannot be removed by the people, because there is no mechanism for it, (referendum, petition, or court challenge) and in Canada and the USA military coups are considered non democratic although a few so called democratic governments have come to power through them and have been accepted as democratic nations I think that it is very important that all the governments making the assertion that they are democratic have one of their great decision-making meeting and decide exactly what being a democratic nation is so that all countries claiming this type of governance are following the same rules and spirit of the word. We have the USA with its own version of democracy and democratic way of governing that as far as I can see works about as effective as our governance when Canada is being governed by a minority government and that means that as we have seen this year the supposedly elected government of the people by the people can not govern, make any decisions and is often held hostage by the opposition parties or in the case the other house, because the other side (the opposition) feels that their only purpose left is to make the other government look stupid and in effective no matter how good for the people whatever the governing body is trying to achieve.

I will not dwell on the lack of proportionality of our democracy, or the fact that our electoral system is constantly being rewritten in a way that disenfranchises the poor and less fragile of Canadian citizens, or finally that Canadians for the most part do not trust government period to do what they say they will and take it for granted that all politicians are corrupt so that corruption is not necessarily enough reason to switch governments, because all of these things would keep me writing forever and a day. I do however think that when you can not stand up in the House of Commons and tell one of you colleagues that he or she is lying, or when protocol and rules of conduct say that a fellow MP has deliberately lied but are by rules of decorum to put aside what you know to be true and publicly while in the House of Commons accept the liars words as an honest mistake, a non intentional misquote, or slip of the tongue, than there is no place for honesty, integrity, or transparency in the Canadian system of governance, as I see it. Perception of transparency, honesty and integrity can never replace the real thing, but yet this is what the code of conduct in the House of Commons rules dictate that all members adhere to. I ask you, “If the whole system of governance and democracy in Canada is based on a lie, then how can this be a fair and democratic system that we in Canada are governed by?